INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS; China Telecom Shares Prove a Hot Seller

Published: October 17, 1997

China Telecom (H.K.) Ltd., the mobile telephone arm of China's Telecommunications Ministry, was valued at $140.2 billion (Hong Kong), or $18.1 billion (United States), in the biggest stock sale ever held in Asia outside Japan. The company priced its shares at $11.68 (Hong Kong) each, the middle of its target range. Hundreds of thousands of people stood in lines at Hong Kong banks this week to buy China Telecom, which has a near-monopoly on the nation's growing mobile phone market.

China Telecom sold 2.6 billion shares, raising about $35 billion (Hong Kong), and will start trading in the United States Oct. 22 and in Hong Kong Oct. 23.